Re-entry set for Monday

Space shuttle Discovery

Posted: Sunday, August 07, 2005

By Marcia DunnAssociated Press

SPACE CENTER, Houston - With the most anxiety-ridden part of their flight still to come, Space Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven set off for home Saturday after leaving the international space station.

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Monday's planned predawn re-entry will be the first by a space shuttle since Columbia's catastrophic descent 2 1/2 years ago.

The two space station residents wished the Discovery crew a safe landing.

"It has really been a pleasure and, no, we are not glad to see you go. We would love to have you stay a little longer," said station astronaut John Phillips. "Have a good flight."

Shuttle commander Eileen Collins stressed it was not "a final farewell," because she planned on seeing the two station men back on Earth once their expedition ends in two months.

Once undocked, Discovery looped around the space station for the first full photographic survey of the orbiting outpost since the last shuttle visit in late 2002, and then sped away into the blackness.

The departing astronauts reported they might have seen a piece of debris fly off the space station, but Mission Control assured them it was just a camera reflection.

Flight controllers, at least those who briefly ducked outdoors, got a triple treat. The Hubble Space Telescope soared over Houston before sunrise, followed by Discovery and then the space station, all three appearing as bright stars.

Discovery spent nine days at the station, one more than planned because of the uncertainty over the timing of the next shuttle visit, so the astronauts could leave behind surplus food, laptop computers and other supplies.

NASA has suspended all shuttle flights until engineers figure out why a 1-pound chunk of foam insulation ripped off Discovery's external fuel tank shortly after liftoff and fix the problem.